Romex Software Forum

Main Question: Will there be ANY way in the future to PRELOAD an ENTIRE GAME or two or more into L2 CACHE and NOT have to wait until THAT particular MAP loads (and Maybe all erased with a Game Lockup and reboot or other bugs) ?

I am using complex PrimoCache as a Gamer. I see it as a NATURAL MOSTLY FOR GAMERS. I do not see a lot of GAME TALK much though, I think you are missing the main BOAT for profits .. many techs never dig ..np.

I have figured out a current workable Setting Scheme. I have a SSD C drive, SSDHD with 360 Games, a 200GB SSD partition for L2 Cache & that drive has a separate Partition for PageFile 15GB, 280 or more for MegaEarthScenery downloads for FSX.. (New Microsoft Flight Simulator for Steam..not used lately). I have my Preset as Read SSD. Then changed Gather to 1 and set READ ONLY for rest so not L1 Cache and not Write Defer. Just put MY 2TB game collection and threw in My SSD C for kicks.. one guy on forum said not good other said do it on C.

I am trying to PRELOAD all the Games and MAPS within the Games I play RO2, Day of Infamy. Of course the Main Game loads faster but until I play a new map it will not be recorded to my massively EMPTY 200 GB L2 CACHE. I want to just TELL L2 CACHE to load all this GAME!

I think you will score points in the MEGA BILLION DOLLAR GAMING COMMUNITY and bucks if you do this! IF it can be done. Waiting for Each Map Played to load in a MPlayer Game to get it into L2 Cache is frustrating and may be erased all on the next Fluke Crash. I really thing you should allow gamers to FORCE L2 CACHE and POINT TO AN ENTIRE GAME. I would expect it is possible with a coding master to just dump all the data from ONE GAME or many into L2 Cache and cut the BS slow down due to having to wait for EVER map already saved and in my G Gaming Drive occurring and LOADING to put it there.

If THIS could be done I think the MEGA-BILLION dollar industry of PC GAMERS would flock to such ......keep up the good works. The $ and USE is for Fast loads for Gamers.. sorry you guys probably play nil.

Nuff Said.
Gamer but Mensa.

Thank you very much for the suggestion!
We do have the plan to support preftech user-defined files/folders to L1 or L2 cache. But I'm afraid that this feature won't be implemented so soon as currently we're developing other major features.

As Support said, it's in the works. I and others have expressed an interest in the feature. There's just a lot of work to be done prior to it.

THAT IS GREAT GUYS! YOU ARE THE BEST!

RawPower wrote:...I have a SSD C drive, SSDHD with 360 Games, a 200GB SSD partition for L2 Cache & that drive has a separate Partition for PageFile 15GB, 280 or more for MegaEarthScenery downloads for FSX.. (New Microsoft Flight Simulator for Steam..not used lately). I have my Preset as Read SSD...I am trying to PRELOAD all the Games and MAPS within the Games I play RO2, Day of Infamy. Of course the Main Game loads faster but until I play a new map it will not be recorded to my massively EMPTY 200 GB L2 CACHE. I want to just TELL L2 CACHE to load all this GAME!

If you only want to boost performance for a few games, they should be able to fit on that 200GB SSD. If you don't want to go through the hassle of uninstalling/reinstalling to a new drive, you could just copy the key folders (the appropriate Program Files folder and whatever data folders the games use) across and use Link Shell Extension to create junctions linking the new folders (on SSD) with their previous location.

"you could just copy the key folders (the appropriate Program Files folder and whatever data folders the games use) across and use Link Shell Extension to create junctions linking the new folders (on SSD) with their previous location."


Thank YOU! But, questions. Copy Across to Where? They Cache is hidden. Link SHELL? Are you saying go to POWERSHELL in CMDs? Link Shell Extension creating JUNCTIONS to New Folders? Link Shell Extension and Junctions are Unknown Data and there are no Folders in the Hidden L2 Cache.
Can you explain this procedure for us lacking tech savvy in the zone typed?

There are several steps to follow:

1. Backup your system

These steps aren't difficult once you're used to them, but mistakes can result in lost data. So to be on the safe side, take a full system backup beforehand.

2. Identify the folders used by the game/application.

There will likely be two (and maybe more) folders - one for the program code (in most cases "C:\Program Files\<game name> though Steam will use a different location) and one for user-created data like saved games and configuration details.

The second can be in several places (usually under "C:\Users\<your Windows username>" within the AppData, My Documents or My Games subfolders and will (usually!) be called <game, developer or publisher name>). So it's probably easier to either do an online search on the game in question or use a snapshot-based install monitor to find out what changes when you save a new game (i.e. start the monitor, take a snapshot, start the game and save a new game plus change some settings, exit, take another snapshot and see what files have changed and note the folders).

Some games may use different locations for configuration settings and saved games. In that case, you'll have 3 folders to transfer rather than 2.

3. Create a new folder on your SSD and copy the game folders across

If you're only talking about moving a couple of games, then having a <gamename> folder on your SSD with the game program files and user data folders within it should be simpler. If you are likely to move lots of games, then it may be better to have separate Program and Data folders, to make it easier to backup savegames. Let's assume you only plan on relocating a couple.

So if you've determined that your exciting Flying Wombats game uses the folders C:\Program Files\Flying Wombats\ for its code and C:\Users\RawPower\AppData\Local\Flying Wombats\ for savegames and configuration data, then (assuming your SSD is drive D:) create D:\Flying Wombats\Program Files and copy C:\Program Files\Flying Wombats into it. Then create D:\Flying Wombats\User Data and copy C:\Users\RawPower\AppData\Local\Flying Wombats\ into that.

4. Replace old folders with junction points linked to the SSD folders.

Now all the data is located on a faster SSD, all you need to do is create a pointer to the new folders so that anything related to the program (Start Menu shortcut, registry entries, etc) will refer to the new folders.

This is where you need to install Link Shell Extension (LSE) and take some time to read up on how to use it.

Then delete the old C: folders (C:\Program Files\Flying Wombats and C:\Users\RawPower\AppData\Local\Flying Wombats\).

Find the new program folder (D:\Flying Wombats\Program Files) using Windows Explorer, right-click on it and select "Pick Link Source" from the menu (this option will only appear if LSE is installed, so if you can't find it check that you have installed it properly).

Go to the parent folder of the previous program folder (C:\Program Files), right-click on that and select "Drop As\Junction" (if "Drop As" does not appear in the menu, then you most likely didn't select link source correctly - repeat the previous step; if Junction does not appear in the Drop As submenu then repeat the previous step making sure that you right-click on a folder, not a file).

If successful, you should now have a junction (marked with a slightly different icon) named "Program Files" in C:\Program Files\ (LSE gives junctions the same name as the source folder) so you now need to rename this to the original game name (Flying Wombats). Once done, then double-clicking on it (in Windows Explorer) should then take you to the files on your D: drive, though they will appear to all intents and purposes to be still in C:\Program Files\Flying Wombats.

Repeat this process with the data folder:

• right-click on D:\Flying Wombats\User Data, select "Pick Link Source";
• right-click on parent of original folder - C:\Users\RawPower\AppData\Local\ in our example - and select "Drop As\Junction";
• Rename the junction to match the previous foldername (from "User Data" to "Flying Wombats" in our example).

At this point the game should work (your existing savegames should be available and new ones should result in new files being created on the SSD) with the bonus of running faster.

Given the steps involved above, you may be tempted to just uninstall and reinstall to SSD - bear in mind that if you do this, you will still need to find (and backup before uninstall/copy in after reinstall) the savegames (step 2) unless you're happy to lose previous saves (if you're using Steam's cloud saves, it probably would be possible to retrieve these in a new install).

Another benefit of the above approach is that you can choose to locate folders on a Ramdisk instead of SSD (make sure you configure the Ramdisk with an image file to avoid data loss!). This should give a further performance boost, since ramdisks are typically ten times the speed of SSDs, but you need to ensure you have enough RAM available to create a suitably sized ramdisk.

Wow.. thank you very much for this Data. I am pasting it into my Txt files for Game Data found and my Desktop Computer Data Found so I can reference later as a running memory in Text files of Specific fixes. I have a running log of discovered info saved in these files.

In the meantime I have found that as Mostly Steam Gamer with most of my games on a SSDHD G drive 2 TB...using the Verifying Game Cache option on my common games used seems to just load all the data from that game on G drive to the hidden 200 GB cache. I have only 40GB left now in Cache. NICE! Filled it up fast. I am confident that most of my current game data is preloaded in cache now. I expect the Cache to delete old data if I run into filling it up. I have ORIGIN games on my SSD C drive so no need for PRIMO there.

Currently I see a very filled up 200GB SSD cache and expect the Read SSD Cache Scheme with 4k clusters and Read Only as option to do what the Program can do.

All 200GBs of Cache filled now due to Verify Steam Cache testing of my main games. Filled it up!